Ottawa: Canadian FM Chrystia Freeland appoints Jeanette Stovel as High Commissioner in Brunei Darussalam. Ms. Stovel replaces Caterina Ventura.
Jeanette Stovel biography: (BA Hons [East Asian Studies], McGill University, 1986; Executive MBA, Warsaw School of Economics, University of Calgary, 2001) joined the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in 2006. During her time at Headquarters, she has served as deputy director of peace operations policy for the Stabilization and Reconstruction Taskforce (2008 to 2009) and deputy director for the Middle East in the Peace and Stabilization Operations Program (2016 to 2019). She has served overseas in Warsaw as political counsellor. Concurrently, she served as the most senior Canadian diplomat accredited to Belarus (2009 to 2012) and in Vilnius as chargé d’affaires. Ms. Stovel was also political counsellor for Latvia and Estonia (2013 to 2016). Before joining the public service, she worked for 15 years in multilateral and non-governmental organizations in Canada, Poland and throughout the former Yugoslavia. This included serving as country director for CARE Austria in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later Macedonia. Ms. Stovel also worked as a program analyst for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Poland.